The Roadex Project

The ROADEX Projects were a series of four technical co-operations between roads organisations across northern Europe part funded by the EU Northern Periphery Programme that aimed to share roads related information and research between the partners. The Project started in 1998 as a 3 year pilot co-operation between the roads districts of Finnish Lapland, Troms County of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the Northern Region of The Swedish National Road Administration and the Highland Council of Scotland. This was subsequently followed and extended by a second project, ROADEX II, from 2002 to 2005, a third project, ROADEX III, from 2006 to 2007, and a final project, “ROADEX Network Implementing Accessibility”, from 2009 to 2012.

Over that period the collaboration grew from a simple agreement to share between four roads districts into an international network that spanned the whole of northern Europe encompassing Partners in Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

In all the ROADEX collaboration produced:

• An active website
• 71 technical reports
• 3 DVDs and project movies
• 37 technology demonstrations, examples given in the respective projects below.
• A host of seminars and workshops

All of the reports produced by the ROADEX collaboration are available for download on the ROADEX website.

In order of execution, the four ROADEX projects were:

The ROADEX Pilot Project, 1998–2001

ROADEX II, 2002–2005

ROADEX III, 2006–2007

ROADEX Implementing Accessibility, 2009–2012

The ROADEX Pilot Project, 1998-2001

Creating an effective technical exchange & co-operation across the road districts of the European Northern Periphery

The aim of the EU Pilot ROADEX Project was to create a technical information exchange for roads related issues across the European Northern Periphery. (Roads Information Exchange = ROADEX). The four Partners areas of the Project were Finnish Lapland, Troms County of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the Northern Region of The Swedish National Road Administration and the Highland Council of Scotland.

These partner districts shared the common environmental and roads problems of long distances to their main markets in Europe, remote settlements and villages, sparse populations, difficult terrain, poor ground conditions, and long winter seasons. In addition they had the major transportation issues associated with their internationally important timber and fishing industries.

ROADEX aimed to bring together the varied roads experiences gained across the individual partner districts to identify best practice and apply this to advantage across the Northern Periphery area. The Pilot project was 50% funded by the European Union and 50% by the partner road districts, and additionally received support from The Scottish Executive and The Icelandic Road Administration. The Lead Partner for the project was the Lapland Region of the Finnish National Road Administration (Finnra). The budget was approved at 541,071 EUR.

The main consultants for the Project were Roadscanners Oy of Finland, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Laboratorio Uleåborg Oy of Oulu who provided the graphic design.

The project delivered a number of outputs: a project CD-ROM Creating effective technical exchange & co-operation between road districts in the NP region and 3 technical reports. These were:

• Road Condition Management of Low Traffic Volume Roads in the Northern Periphery
• Winter Maintenance Practice in the Northern Periphery
• Generation of Snow Smoke behind Heavy Vehicles

Following the completion of the successful Pilot Project the partners committed themselves to a further ROADEX collaboration to further share information and carry out joint research.

The ROADEX II Project, 2002-2005

Interactive and Innovative Road Management Practices for Low Traffic Volume Roads

The EU part-funded ROADEX II Project was a 3 year collaboration to develop ways for interactive and innovative road management of low traffic volume roads. It built on the networks created during the successful Article 10 ROADEX project with additional inputs from local industry involving heavy road haulage to improve roads service provision across the area.

The Partners in the new Project were: The Partners in the new Project The Highland Council of Scotland, The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, The Swedish National Road Administration Northern Region, Forest Enterprise of Scotland, Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, The Finnish Road Administration, District of Keski-Suomi and The Finnish Road Administration Central Administration.

The Lead Partner for the project was The Highland Council, Scotland and the project budget was 511,250 EUR. Roadscanners Oy of Finland in association with Laboratorio Uleåborg Oy of Oulu was awarded the role of project consultant following an open EU tender process.

The project also had a number of Associate Partners. These were: The Norwegian Hauliers Association, The Finnish Road Administration, Lapland District, Metsähallitus Forestry, Stora Enso Metsä, Metsäliitto Osuukunta, and The Forestry Centre of Lapland. The involvement of these Partners from the forest and timber products industry in the Project brought extensive experience of gravel road technology to the Partnership and permitted the Project to consider community roads in the widest possible context.

The formal outputs of the project included a Project DVD Focussing on low volume roads in the Northern Periphery and 11 technical reports concerning the management and maintenance of low volume roads. These were:

• User perspective to ROADEX II test areas’ road network service level
• Permanent deformation
• Material treatment
• Managing spring thaw weakening
• Socio-economic impacts of road conditions on low volume roads
• Dealing with bearing capacity problems on low volume roads constructed on peat
• Drainage on low traffic volume roads
• Environmental guidelines
• Road management policies for low volume roads
• Structural Innovations
• Monitoring, communication and information systems & tools for focusing actions

The ROADEX III Project, 2006-2007

A Project to disseminate, transfer and use the new ROADEX knowledge across the Northern Periphery area

The EU Part-funded ROADEX III Project was a 2 year trans-national collaboration that aimed to disseminate and implement the roads management strategies, practices and innovation gathered under the pilot ROADEX project and ROADEX II. This was done through a range of methods including producing executive summaries of ROADEX outputs in individual partner languages; presentations at conferences, seminars, workshops; training packages, web based information; and further pilot trials of prototype solutions on the rural road networks of the Partner areas.

The partners in the project were The The Highland Council, Forest Enterprise and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar from Scotland, the Northern Region of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, The Northern Region of the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Forest Agency, the Savo-Karjala and Keski-Suomi Regions of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Finland, The Icelandic Road Administration, The Department of Transport and The National Roads Authority from Ireland, The Municipality of Sisimiut of the Greenland Home Rule Government and the Swedish Board of Forestry, Dalarna/Gävleborg. In addition to these Partners The Finnish Road Administration Lapland District and The Association of Regional Road Authorities (RADOR), Russia joined as Associate Partners.

The Lead Partner for the project was The Swedish National Road Administration and the project budget was 797,030 EUR. Roadscanners Oy of Finland in association with Laboratorio Uleåborg Oy of Oulu was awarded the role of project consultant following an open EU tender process.

The formal outputs of the project included 3 Project DVDs and 13 technical reports on the management and maintenance of low volume roads. These were:

Project DVDs

• DVD Video Introduction to the ROADEX III seminars
• DVD Working to the Lisbon and Gothenburg Agendas
• DVD ROADEX in Greenland, 2007

Executive summaries from ROADEX II reports

• Managing rutting in low volume roads
• Treatment of moisture susceptible aggregates
• Design and repair of roads suffering spring thaw weakening
• Managing peat related problems on low volume roads
• Managing drainage on low volume roads
• Environmental guidelines
• Monitoring low volume roads

ROADEX III Project Reports

• Developing drainage guidelines for maintenance contracts
• Tyre pressure control on timber haulage vehicles
• Understanding low volume pavement response to heavy traffic loading
• Driver health issues raised by poorly maintained road networks
• Road condition management policies
• Policies for forest roads
• ROADEX III case study in Greenland

A number of these reports were translated into Finnish, Greenlandic, Icelandic, Norwegian, Russian and Swedish to aid their dissemination and implementation.

The Northern Periphery Programme recommended the ROADEX project for a RegioStars award in 2009. At the award ceremony the project received a special mention from the RegioStars 2009 Jury.

The ROADEX Implementing Accessibility Project, 2009-2012

Implementing ROADEX technologies across the Partner areas

This Fourth EU part-funded ROADEX project aimed to change construction and maintenance of rural roads across the Northern Periphery by demonstrating what was possible when new ROADEX technologies were used. Demonstration projects of ROADEX methods were carried out in the local Partner areas supported by a new pan-regional ROADEX Consultancy Service and Knowledge Centre. Through these, roads administrations were able to directly experience the benefits and cost savings available and so encourage their adoption through their organisations. Joint research and development also continued in the areas of climate change, road widening and the health issues that can arise from poorly maintained roads.

The Partners in the project comprised public road administrations and forestry organizations from across the European Northern Periphery: The The Highland Council, Forestry Commission Scotland and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar from Scotland; the Northern Region of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration; the Northern Region of the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Forest Agency; the Lappi, Savo-Karjala and Keski-Suomi Regions of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Finland; The Icelandic Road Administration; The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and The National Roads Authority from Ireland; and the Greenland Home Rule Government. The Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) and Coillte of Ireland contributed to the project as Associate Partners.

The Lead Partner again for the project was The Swedish National Road Administration with a budget of 2,163,473 EUR. Roadscanners Oy of Finland in association with Laboratorio Uleåborg Oy of Oulu was appointed as project consultant after an open EU tender process.

Each demonstration project was followed up by a fully referenced technical report published on the ROADEX website. These continue to be available free of charge to all. In all over 30 technical reports were published. Typically these reports covered roads related issues such as drainage analysis techniques across different countries and road landscapes, demonstrations of state-of-the-art road rehabilitations and widening, condition surveys and rehabilitation proposals for forest roads, as well as a summary report on the benefits & savings that could be accrued using ROADEX strategies and technologies.

A major output for this project was the web-based e-learning suite of four e-learning lessons. These lessons summarised the ROADEX research and were designed to help learning in the workplace and in academic institutions. As with the ROADEX III reports, the e-learning lessons were also offered in the partner languages of Finnish, Greenlandic, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish to aid their dissemination and implementation.

The EU part-funding of the ROADEX projects ended in 2012 at which point the Partners committed themselves to jointly self-fund a ROADEX Network to permit continued information sharing and research. This Network is still active.

The ROADEX Network since 2012

The EU Northern periphery programme part-funded ROADEX projects came to an end on 30 June 2012 with the successful completion of the fourth project ROADEX Implementing Accessibility 2009–2012. The ROADEX collaboration continued however self-funded by the ROADEX Partners as the ROADEX Network. The aim of the Network is to continue close working between the Partners on all matters concerning the management of low volume rural roads including the ROADEX website, knowledge centre, e-learning system, results, reports etc. The Lead Partner for the project is the Northern Region of The Swedish Road Administration.

The 11 continuing partner organizations at the time of the new Network were: The Highland Council, Forestry Commission Scotland and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar; the Northern Region of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration; the Northern Region of the Swedish National Road Administration; the Lapland Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment; The Finnish Transport Agency, The Icelandic Road Administration; The Department of Transport Tourism and Sport and The National Roads Authority from Ireland.

From the outset the Network was charged with taking care of the legacy of the ROADEX projects: the website, knowledge centre, e-learning packages, project outputs, technical reports and others. Its aim was to move the ROADEX cooperation further to continue to promote the application of state-of-the-art strategies and technologies in low volume road management.

The founding partners set out the goals of the new Network as:

• To be a forum for cooperation between road authorities, forest authorities, universities and other stakeholders with interests in management of low volume roads;
• To take care of the ROADEX legacy, including managing the outputs of the four ROADEX projects and keeping them up to date;
• To increase the efficiency and sustainability in road management by using ROADEX technologies;
• To improve the quality of road maintenance and construction by using ROADEX technologies;
• To share best practice between the Partners;
• To implement and test new solutions in the Partner areas;
• To follow-up on the use of ROADEX knowledge;
• To be a forum for new solutions and implementation of ROADEX methods;
• To arrange seminars, workshops and meetings in the field of low volume roads;
• To be a joint body to seek external funding for research and implementation projects to develop the ROADEX knowledge centre and cooperation further.

A main challenge for the collaboration is how to use developing applications in digitalization, new technologies and robotics to produce new tools and strategies for road asset management. New technologies based on road diagnostics and proactive maintenance can allow minor defects to be addressed as they arise before they grow into serious issues.

The day to day running of the Network is contracted to a consulting Secretariat for a fixed term. The contract for this is subject to standard EU rules. As well as carrying out the normal administrative duties the Secretariat is also responsible for giving guidance to the partners on the management of low-volume roads and promoting ROADEX technologies internationally. The current Secretariat is Roadscanners Oy.

The Partners aim to have one physical SC meeting and one Skype SC meeting per year with the physical meeting ideally being held in conjunction with an annual conference or workshop in the chosen partner area. These meetings will monitor the dissemination of the ROADEX strategies & technologies and receive information on how ROADEX results are being implemented by the partner areas. Round-table discussions and work sessions will be arranged on topics to be selected by the partners to facilitate in-depth exchange of ideas and experiences.

The strategy for the current Partners is to continue to focus on:

• remote rural low volume roads
• forest roads
• climate change mitigation and asset management
• autonomous vehicles and digitalization
• the effects of heavy trucks on the road

Recent noteworthy projects involving technologies developed by ROADEX include: research into the effects of the new generations of heavy trucks on asphalt pavement lifetimes; the Pajala Mine Road in Sweden (2013); the PEHKO Project in Finland, (2015-2025).

All ROADEX Network results and outcomes continue to be available free of charge on the ROADEX website at www.roadex.org.

External links

• www.roadex.org

This article "The Roadex Project" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:The Roadex Project. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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